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The newest building to go up on cobblestone-lined Mercer Street,
Soho's 44 Mercer has finally come out into the open. The rendering and floorplans
from TRA Studio surfaced at the end of 2007, back when this was
a seven-story single-family dwelling going for a cool $25 million.
But times have changed, so the offer these days is four full-floor
units priced from $2.75 million to $3.2 million (three are already
in contract, per StreetEasy), and a $6.25 million super duper duplex penthouse
with fireplaces, balconies and a private roof deck complete with hot tub.
Will the virtual doorman be able to keep us from crashing?

The facade of the six residential floors is ultra-modern, with glass
and steel fronting onto Mercer. In contrast, the fully exposed south wall
is utilitarian brick with a regular set of rectangular windows, all facing onto
the imposing north wall of Jean Nouvel's 40 Mercer. Down on the street will
be a retail space with an all-new cast iron front. So far this one looks even
sharper than the renderings, which is always welcome from the newest
neighbor on the block. Agreed?

By Max Abelson
September 30, 2009 | 8:18 a.m.
Have Mercer! Condo at Nouvel’s Castle Sells at a Loss for $4.22 M.

The world of expensive Manhattan real estate is an outstandingly weird one. When proper Upper East Side brokers don’t get an exclusive listing they were hoping for, sometimes they’ll complain to you: “She’s a bitch with fake blond hair, one kidney and a bad nose job.” On Sept. 29 alone, city records showed that a man named Stuyvesant P. Comfort bought a $5.9 million apartment on Park Avenue, and Mr. Lloyd Plenty paid $4 million on East 86th Street.

Things get odder. In April, Curbed.com wondered why a $4.5 million unit at the beautiful new 40 Mercer Street condo, whose Pritzker Prize–winning architect, Jean Nouvel, sprinkled reds and blues into its glass, could have resold for only $135,000. As it turns out, it didn’t. The six-digit deed was for a separate cabana there, a source in the building told The Observer.

Half a year later, that $4.5 million unit was actually just sold off, according to another deed, for only $4,220,000—still a relatively sad sum, especially considering that the condo’s asking price was once as high as $7.25 million. The buyer is a limited liability corporation that seems to be connected to Tamares Real Estate, which, among other things, is a big Las Vegas gaming landlord. Executive Kenneth Landfield, who is listed in the deeds, did not return a call.

Weirdly, the buyer signed a $2 million financing agreement with Pocal Industries in Scranton, Penn., records show. Pocal’s Web site says the company has been “manufacturing high quality, mortar training ammunition since 1981.” A call to the firm was not returned.

But oddest of all is how humdrum it’s become to sell an apartment at a loss. What would have seemed like an amusing impossibility a year and a half ago is now pedestrian: No one would really be offended to hear that the apartment was sold for $280,000 less than the $4.5 million its seller paid in 2007. At least it didn’t sell for $135,000! “Well, look, any time you buy during a peak, if you have to sell within the next couple of years, you’re out of luck,” Douglas Elliman’s president and CEO, Dottie Herman, said in August. “That’s life.”

It's time for another Curbed House Call, in which we take a look at a notable but maybe not-so-new building and take its market temperature.

The cabanas, the crazy pool, the private club—the Jean Nouvel-designed 40 Mercer will always be one of Soho's main attractions. Did you know that André Balazs developed 40 Mercer as a hotel, but switched to condos once hotel financing dried up after 9/11? Weird to think of the place as an inn, but that's a tale for another time. Folks, there is serious drama going on at the titan of tinted glass. Sure, cabanas are still trading for $135,000, but at least one apartment in the 13-story, 40-unit building recently sold at a loss! Blasphemy! There are currently five units on the resale market, and we want to take a closer look at four of them. To the House Call!

Unit: 12EPrice: $7.995 millionStats: 2BR, 2.5BA, 2206sfThe Skinny: Think the $3,600/sf asking price is a little outrageous? This is the same apartment that was asking $10.85 million in January. Numerous chops have followed, including the dip down to the current price back in September. Why do we include the floorplan? To compare it with what's going on below.

Unit: 11WPrice: $7.99 millionStats: 3BR, 3.5BA, 2,706sfThe Skinny: Note the similar yet slightly lower asking price when compared with the unit above. But this apartment, according to the given stats, is 500 square feet bigger. Maybe the blue boxes are more valuable than the reddish ones?

Unit: #9Price: $2.195 millionStats: 1BR + HO, 1.5BA, 1,222sfThe Skinny: We didn't think it was possible, but someone has succeeded in taking dark, dull and disappointing photos of 40 Mercer interiors. According to StreetEasy this unit sold for $2.35 million in 2007, so we have another loser on our hands. As Jean Nouvel would say, sacre bleu!

So this is what it looks like on the higher floors of 40 Mercer. This new-to-market place is a 3BR, 3.5BA with an interior square footage of 3,006 and a 1,582-square-foot terrace that, in that lit-up night shot, bears a bit of a resemblance to the High Line, if the High Line also had a lap pool. Not bad! The brokerbabble doesn't add much detail, but maybe it doesn't need to. The place last sold (to a trust) for $12 million in 2009, and it changed hands again last year for precisely zero dollars. This time around the price is $16 million.